Phanniemay Challange
by EchoGhost1
Summary: This is for Becca's Danny Phantom theme a day challenge! I will be (hopefully) writing a series of One shots for each of the themes. I'll try my best to do them all!
1. No Need To Fall Apart On Me (Bruises)

Usually Danny thought of himself as pretty observant when he was on patrol. That was the whole point after all, being on patrol and being oblivious was the stupidest combination that he could think off. Well that and Vlad's obsession with the Packers.

It was this idea that he was good at what he did that made his reaction to the surprise attack even worse.

Danny had just finished off with some minor ghosts and was going back to flying over the city again when it happened. Luckily his attacker really liked to yell at him while attacking so that helped. Slightly.

"I'M GONNA END YOU GHOST KID!" The Huntress shouted as she fired a few 'warning' shots at him.

With Danny's full attention on the cry from behind him that he barely had time to barrel roll out of the way. He felt the heat of the ecto-blasts graze his face and saw a few hairs flutter down to the city below. For a moment he wondered if Paulina would find them and add them to her shrine.

Danny shook the idea out of his head and turned to face his opponent. He was hoping maybe he could try and talk her down or if that failed get a read on her mood before he had to disappear. Tonight she looked oddly pleased.

"Should I be worried?" Danny questioned but quickly added after he received a glare, "I mean more than usual! You usually don't come with a grin. Just guns a-blazing"

The Huntress cocked and eyebrow, "How can you tell I was smiling?"

"I can see it in your eyes." Danny answered warily. "But seriously, why are you happy to see me? You get a new weapon or something?"

Valarie smirked again, "why actually yes." And without another word she reached behind her and quickly threw her new toy at Phantom.

Danny quickly dodged and couldn't help but smirk himself. "Nice try, but you are going to have to try harder than that."

To Danny's surprise Valarie's smirk grew and she casually raised her hand as if she was about to catch something. "You really shouldn't underestimate me Ghost."

There was a quick sound, like a blade rushing through the air followed by a sharp pain in Danny's wrist, but it was so quick he hardly had time to register it. And then Valarie was catching a shiny object, most likely the weapon in question.

"Ha, I knew you were faking it. But I am disappointed. I kind of enjoyed the satisfaction I got from hearing you suffer." Valarie spat at her half-ghost prey.

Now Danny was really confused and a tad concerned at her finishing words. He raised his arms in a shrugging gesture to show just how confused he was while also stating it, "What are you talking ab-" He stopped himself before he finished when he noticed the odd feeling in his aforementioned left wrist. Was it dripping? Odd. His gaze slowly turned his attention and gaze as he raised his hand closer to his view. Wait his hand? Where was his hand? He bent his arm in and looked with morbid curiosity at his own stump of a wrist. It was here earlier wasn't it? Was that his bone? That odd black center covered in green ectoplasm. The green goop was slowly dripping up his arm when he had to break his gaze away. He was starting to feel it. But he knew if he went into shock now he'd most likely change back, and he couldn't now. Not at this height. And defiantly not in front of her!

He looked at her weapon again, but this time really looked. The weapon went nicely with her outfit, a deep red handle and even harsher black blade. There was his ectoplasm on the sharp blade of her... wait was that a boomerang? That explained how it came back. Wait came back. Where was his hand?

Danny jerked backwards in the air and looked down. There it was, still tumbling down to the pavement below. Oh good it was still in one piece! But would it stay that way if it hit the ground? Danny still wasn't that great at physics to know that answer. Wow, and he wanted to be an astronaut? He really needed to look into that.

"Stop distracting yourself!" Danny chided aloud and quickly flew after his severed hand leaving the Red Huntress very confused. Was he just talking to himself? Out loud?

She was about to follow the ghost boy but once he caught his hand, which was rather quickly, he disappeared and even her suit couldn't track him. Did he just teleport or something? Usually she could find him if he went invisible, the many perks of her updated battle suit.

* * *

As soon as Danny yanked his hand out of the air he mashed it back onto his arm. He hoped and he prayed and he wished as hard as he could that it would reattach. He didn't know what he'd do if he lost his hand. How could he fight? What the heck would he tell his parents?!

He found himself phasing threw his bedroom wall quicker than he thought he would. Must of been so focused on his hand that he went on autopilot. But he was sure he was on the other side of town.

He floated down to his bed and did his best not to cry out as the pain started to peak. He closed his eyes trying to fight it back, he couldn't risk waking anyone up now. Even if it was just his sister he didn't want her to worry about him, not unless this didn't work. Maybe he should sew it back on?

"That's a brilliant idea!" Danny quickly and quietly exclaimed as he hopped out of bed. And he knew just the thing to use too! He phased through the floors and then ran to find what he was looking for in the Fenton Weapons vault.

"Ah!" Danny smiled and his eyes fell onto his prize, The Fenton Ghost Fisher. It was actually the fishing line that he wanted. If he was right then it might keep him together until his quick ghost healing could take over.

Then he quickly ran into a problem. How was he supposed to sew himself back together? He couldn't even grab the Fenton fisher without dropping his hand!

"crud." Danny cursed to himself. Ok so who could help him with this? Did he know anyone that could sew? Did Sam? Wait no, she'd probably just say that was an insult to all women or something. Oh! Tucker! Danny was sure that his friend could upload some how-to video or something.

With some new found confidence in his friend Danny grabbed the fishing pole with his teeth and quickly flew to his best friend's house hoping he was still awake.

But with Danny's luck Tucker was asleep. Danny phased through his bedroom window anyway and tried to wake his buddy up.

"-Ucker! -Ucker -wa-e up!" Danny attempted through his teeth and the pole in his mouth. Danny rolled his eyes at how stupid that sounded and how useless that was as his friend stayed content in dreamland.

Danny spat the fishing rod on the bed so it wouldn't make any noise and nuged his friend with his foot as he floated above him.

"Tucker! Wake Up! I need your help!" Danny hissed in a whisper not wanting to wake up Tucker's parents.

It still wasn't working so Danny smirked at the idea that quickly flooded his mind.

Danny floated down so his face was mere inches from Tucker's ear and whispered, "Your PDA is on fire."

Tucker shot out of bed with a yelp and ran to his desk where his unharmed PDA sat charging. "Don't you worry! Daddy's here!"

Danny couldn't help but crack up. "Oh man that was too easy. I'll need to remember that one."

Tucker whipped around quickly after realizing his PDA was in fact flame free. "What was that for?!"

"I was hoping you could help? I'm not every handy at sewing." Danny paused noticing the pun. He let out a small laugh "ha, handy. Get it?" he raised his severed hand and waved it at Tucker careful to keep it attached to his wrist.

Tucker just stared, "You want me to help?" was all he managed to say.

"Yeah I figured you could look up some sewing thing with your PDA and fix me up. I'd do it myself but- yeah..." Danny trailed off and floated back down so he could sit on the bed.

"Why didn't you just make a clone of you? And what the heck am I suppose to use? I don' have medical thread." Tucker asked.

Danny perked back up and floated a tad off the bed, "Oh that's what the Fenton fisher is for! I figure we could use the specialized line so I can't accidently phase through it and drop my hand somewhere." Danny paused again and then remembered that Tucker had asked him another question. "As for making a double? Well I'm putting so much focus on not screaming, I don't think I could do it. Well that and what if _it_ only have one hand? How not helpful would that be?"

Tucker stared blankly at his friend again and then went to the bed to collect the fishing pole and started to disconnect the line from the hook. Finally he spoke, "You know, I hate to say it but sometimes you scare me dude."

Danny gave his friend a worried look, "what do you mean?"

"I mean, I guess it's a good thing, but your pain tolerance is crazy high now. I'm sure it's just from all the fights..." Tucker trailed off and then went to fetch his PDA wondering what he could use for a needle.

"but?" Danny knew Tucker to well to know that there was something else on his mind.

"Well," Tucker turned back to his ghostly friend and looked to the floor, "what if it's a ghost thing? What if you stop feeling all together?"

Danny couldn't hide his shock, that was a crazy idea! Ghost could feel! He punched enough of them to know that. He decided to tell Tucker just that.

Tucker smiled at Danny's reasoning. "Well I guess that's true... but you were a ghost. Maybe ghosts can only feel other ghosts? Doesn't that worry you?"

Danny let out a nervous laugh, "Honestly?" Tucker nodded and Danny continued, "I haven't thought about it at all. I'm pretty sure I'll be fine. It's not like I'm really dead." Danny smiled reassuringly. "So we gonna patch me up or what?"

Tucker did his best to smile back. He still wasn't so sure about that. How could you be half-ghost and not half-dead? But he decided to drop the subject, maybe he'd ask Sam about it later. But now, "I'm gonna go get my... umm _mom's_ sewing kit, we're gonna need a needle otherwise this isn't going to work."

Danny settled himself back on the end of the bed as he waited for Tucker to return. He took some deep breathes trying to bury the pain again. It wasn't that he had a higher pain tolerance, it was just that he had learned to hide it. He hated seeing the looks or fear and worry on his friends and Jazz's faces. Everything still hurt like before. He just did better at not screaming out in agony.

It wasn't long that Tucker returned and started to sew Danny back together. He winced a few times during the process but he did his best at grinning and bearing it.

After Tucker was finished he wrapped up Danny's wrist and warned him to take it easy. Danny nodded and carefully and quickly flew home hoping he'd have enough time to get a semi-decent amount of rest before he had to wake up for school.

* * *

Danny awoke to the sound of his sister knocking on his door saying that, "we only have 20 minutes to get to school. If you don't get up now I'm leaving without you! I have a perfect attendance to keep up with!"

Danny smiled at the treat and replied back, "Just give me 5! I'll be ready before you know it!" he knew she was just doing that for his parents' sake, he knew she had let him sleep in on purpose. One of the things he was thankful for with his sister knowing his secret.

It wasn't until he rolled out of bed that he remembered what happened last night. He wasn't quite awake enough to hold back his pained holler as he dropped to the floor.

Before he could protest Jazz quickly opened his door and entered. "Are you ok?"

Danny composed himself and sat back on his heels, "Yeah, just forgot about this." He held up his hand careful not to jostle it too much as it still hurt to do so.

Jazz closed the door behind her and carefully crossed the room to him as if walking to quickly would cause it to fall off. Which knowing his luck it might.

"Oh my gosh Danny, what happened?" she tenderly held his arm and hand in her own and examined the ripe bruising the circled his wrist.

"Well if you promise not to freak I'll tell you." Danny said with a casually smile also admiring the injury.

She cocked and brow at her baby brother, "Oh? I'll try my best." Surely it couldn't be that bad if he was acting so calm about it. But he had been a tad more tolerant of his ghost fighting injuries lately and it worried her. And now the more she thought about it, the more she was regretting agreeing. Maybe it was best if she didn't know. Their versions of minor injuries were changing at an alarming rate.

Danny couldn't hide the mischievous smirk on his face now. Did she really forget what happened the last time she asked that? But better to feed her curiosity now than to have her worry herself with imagined problems, "It kinda fell off." She didn't need to know all the gory details.

Jazz dropped his had immediately to stifle her scream. "f-f-fell off?! What do you mean fell off?!"

Danny let out a small chuckle, "Don't worry it's fine. I was a bit worried but Tucker helped me put it back on see? We used the line from Dad's Fenton Fisher. It'll stay put even if I go intangible." And he quickly proved his point by making his arm intangible and putting his arm through the floor and pulling it back up showing he was still in one piece.

Jazz let a small sigh of relief, well that was some smart thinking on his part. "Well just try not to use your powers unless you have to, ok?"

"Yes mom." Danny teased. "Don't we have school to go to today or can I call in sick?"

Jazz scowled, "I'll drive."


	2. Out Of All Powers (Flying)

They had been chatting back and forth for awhile now and had long since lost track of time. Danny didn't mind, he had many late nights under his belt from gaming to ghost fighting, so one more late night couldn't hurt him too much.

"_So you got any hobbies?_" Danny said as he typed the same words and sent them to Valarie.

"_oh nothing much. But I am pretty into martial arts._" was her reply.

"_Really? What belt are you?_" Danny asked know a few things about on the subject himself.

"_not to brag but I'm a 9__th__ degree black belt._"

Danny chuckled a bit as he sent his next reply, "_the irony of this is, so is my mother._"

There was a brief pause and then darker skinned girl replied, "_REALLY? OMG Danny! I don't know whether to laugh or cry for you. So far I'm doing a bit of both._"

Danny tried to keep his laughter down as to not wake anyone and so he could answer her, "_oh it's not that bad is it? LOL_"

"_Knowing that you have 2 girls in your life that can break you in half? Oh no I'm sure it's fine. LOL_"

Danny had to resist from adding that they both also wanted to destroy him as Phantom too. That might make things a tad awkward.

After laughing at that for a few moments they tossed a few more questions back and forth.

She asked if he had any hobbies and he knew that ghost hunting couldn't count so he came up with a better one, "_I'm pretty good at bowling I guess._"

"_Oh yeah? How good?_" and he hunch she was smirking at him.

"_Oh just a 150 average. Nothing that great._" he just couldn't help the sarcasm there.

"_What? That's amazing!_" there was a brief pause, "_that was sarcasm wasn't it?_"

All Danny replied was a simple winking smiley face. He then decided to change the subject, "_What's your favorite fruit?_" Danny asked randomly.

"_Oh how did you know I had an answer for this one? It's Kumquat. Only cuz it's such a funny word. LOL_"

Danny smiled not quite noticing the faint warmth on his cheeks.

Eventually she asked what he wanted to be when he grew up and he told her, "_ever since I was really little I've wanted to be an astronaut. Just the thought of being out in space with the stars and planets. It just sounds great._"

There was a bit of a pause again and Danny reread what he had typed and was starting to worry if he had sounded too cheesy.

Finally a new message appeared. "_that's really sweet Danny. I like that you're so decisive on that. I haven't quite decided myself. Besides maybe college?_"

The boy couldn't help but smile again, "_thanks. Was worried you thought that was cheesy or something._"

"_na, childish but not cheesy._"

"_childish?!_" Danny pouted a tad.

"_Oh but in a good way! Shows you can still have good dreams. I wouldn't ever want that to change about you._"

Now Danny really felt the blush on his face grow warm. And that's when he noticed he was now sitting on the floor with the chair in his face. "Darn it!" Danny quickly pulled himself off the floor and focused on making his legs solid again. As he was lifting himself back up he accidently grabbed the keyboard. What was with him an accidently hitting buttons?

"_Umm Danny, you ok?_" she asked.

"_Oh yeah I'm fine. I fell into my chair._" Danny replied quickly not noticing what he had written.

"_INto?_"

Then realization hit and he had to make a quick recovery. "_opps. Typo. I meant out of._"

"_wow. You really are the clumsiest person I know. How do you fall out of chair when you are just sitting and typing?_" there was a short pause and then a second message appeared. "_unless you are doing something else?_"

"_wwhat? No! I just. Umm. Clumsy? Can we get back to that game of 20 questions we were playing? I think it's your turn to ask me something. Not about me being clumsy!_"

"_oh ok, if you say so. How about this. If you could have one super power what would it be?_"

Danny blinked a few times as he read that. And then reread it. "Did she know something? No she couldn't. Just an innocent question, calm down Fenton." Danny mumbled softly to himself before he realized that she was waiting for his answer. It took him a moment but then it hit him, "_Flying._" He typed quickly. It was one of his favorites.

"_Really? That's a pretty basic one. How come?_"

"_now that's a good question. Let me think about that one?_" And think Danny did. Why did he like flying? And how could he word it to sound like he had never actually done it?

"_ok but don't leave me hanging too long._" She posted with a smiley face emote of her own.

"_part of it is the thought of being part of the sky. Maybe that ties in with me and astronomy? My sister would have a field day psychoanalyzing that one LOL_" he paused again and posted his continued thoughts, "_and also the feeling of weightlessness sounds pretty great too! Opps that's another space thing hu? LOL_" he added a little laughing emote and continued his mini monologue, "_and to be able to control yourself like that would be pretty great! Especially if you could go super fast! Then I'd never be late again!_" Danny chuckled a bit more at that last comment.

He was about to ask her what she would want but then his eyes glanced at the clock.

And it seemed Valarie had done the same. "_Danny, it's 3am! We have school TODAY!_"

They both quickly said goodnight and logged off.

And Danny would of gone straight to bed, if he hadn't been too busy thinking about his little chat session.


	3. The Scent Of Obsession (Shipping)

As much as she hated to do essays, or homework in general Paulina couldn't help but find herself excited about her newest assignment. Mr. Lancer had assigned them to do a research paper on their family traditions. At first she was among the classes huge groan of complaint, that is until she had gotten home. The girl had been distracting herself from her project by looking at the many pictures of her beloved ghost boy when the idea struck her.

"How am I going to catch the ghost boy?" she whined to herself. With her growing boredom she opened up her internet search browser and typed just that.

"How to catch ghost" as it turned out wasn't a very helpful search phrase. She didn't want to hurt him! But all the results where odd tips on how to hunt or photograph them and that was not what she needed.

So the girl did what she did every time she ran into trouble. She went to her father. "Papa! Papa! How to you catch a ghost without hurting it? I want the ghost boy to come over for dinner but he's so busy that I can never ask him." Paulina called throughout the house until she found the person in question.

Mr. Sanchez frowned for a moment, he really wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea that his perfect baby girl was in love with a dead kid. But he also didn't want to see his daughter upset so he answered her. "Well I'm not sure how well it really works but I back in Mexico during Dia De los Muertos many people say that the use Flor del Muerto can lead the dead anywhere you want. As long as the flower is there."

With that her eyes sparkled, "get me as many as you can and then get me more!" She quickly bounced up and gave her father a kiss on the check, "I love you Papa!" and then ran off to her room smiling from ear to ear.

the next day was a bit rough in the morning because Paulina had stayed up all night researching the Flor del Muerto, or as it was better known as, the marigold. She had also found out that there was a local shop that sold a Marigold perfume and even said that they could sell her some in the morning.

With that good news to motivate her, along with a fresh bouquet of them from her father she was ready for the day in no time. And with a quick stop at the shop before school, just in case there was another ghost fight at school.

When she walked into school that day she got her normal hall stopping attention that she loved but as the day went on she noticed something was a bit off. Someone was giving her more attention than usual, and it was starting to get annoying. He was following her everywhere!

She was walking down the hall to the bathrooms to freshen up when she lost it. This was going much too far, if he kept this up he was about to follow her straight into the bathroom. "Danny!" she said in an irritated tone stopping in her tracks and spinning on her heels, "Why are you following me into the bathroom? It's girls only!"

It seemed like that last part made it threw his thick skull. "Hu? What? Oh! Oh I'm so sorry Paulina!" he let out that nervous laugh of his, "you just smell really nice today..." he trailed off and stated to space out again.

"Well that's nice, I did get a new perfume-" Paulina started but was quickly interrupted by the Fenton freak.

"Really? What is it?" He asked with a bit of over enthusiasm in his voice.

"and I didn't get it for you! I got it for the ghost boy! Now if you excuse me I have to use the restroom." And with that she gave him the cold shoulder and walked into the restroom. That was not a reaction she was expecting. Guess there's always going to be something odd that happens with him. The A-listers didn't pick on him for no reason. He was weird, had creepy friends and crazy parents. Only his sister seemed to be an exception from the weirdness, more or less.

By the time school ended Paulina was more than upset, the only attention she was able to really get was from Fenton and as much as she was hoping the ghost boy would show up he never did. She complained to her father on the car ride home and he tried to reassure to not give up to quickly.

When she got home she figured she might as well write that paper for school, she had all the research done last night anyway. After a few hours of typing she was finally done and was relaxing on her bed when she heard a small knock on her window.

She opened her eyes and looked to the sound. Who could be knocking on her two story window?

Then she saw it, he was there. Waving shyly and gesturing that she open up.

She sprang up from her bed as quick as could and threw her window open, "Ghost boy! You came!"

He took a deep breath and smiled contently, "yeah, I couldn't keep away. What's that lovely smell anyway?"

"Oh that's the Flor del Muertos! I got them for you!" She leaned out of the window slightly and gave him an alluring gaze, "Did you want to come in?"

His bright green eyes widen in excitement, "Do I ever!"

That night was the best that Paulina ever had.


	4. A Cure For The Dead (Crossover-DW-)

It was Danny's senior year and as much as he should be excited for it, he wasn't. Sure he was going to graduate, just barely. Years of ghost fighting had taken a real toll on his school life and as hard as he tried it just wasn't enough. His parents were obviously disappointed with him but kept their silence, saying that they were glad he was going to graduate this year.

That only made it worse.

What killed Danny the most was finally realizing that he might not ever get to do his dream job. With such poor grades there was no way he'd be allowed in the space program. Then again with his powers how could he even be sure he'd pass a physical?

So it was here, in his room, alone, that his friends found him. He was facing the wall with a model rocket in one hand and a box full of his NASA posters and other space trinkets at his feet.

He let out a deep sigh not seeming to notice as Sam approached as she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. She smiled with worry, "Hey there Danny, you packing for college already?"

Danny shrugged out from under her grasp and shook his head, "no, I'm just removing these distractions from my room."

"Distractions?" Tucker asked as he slid into the room and closed the door.

"Who was I kidding? I'll never get into the space program. Not with my grades! Heck what if they figure what I am on some space test?" He sighed gently placing the model into the box and flopping himself dejectedly onto his bed.

The friends looked at each other unsure of how to cheer him up. As much as she hated to admit it, Sam had been thinking the same thing for years now and she knew Tucker had started to think about it too.

"Look man-" but whatever words of comfort were interrupted by Danny's ghost sense.

* * *

After the fight Danny was pooped. It lasted much longer than his usual fights and this ghost was very different from the rest. It was the least human looking ghost he had ever fought! And that was saying something. He was almost tempted to open the thermos and give it an award!

Sam said that wasn't the best idea, that it was rude, and promptly took said thermos away from him.

"What? I'm just a little curious?" Danny protested.

"Danny, you of all people should know ghosts have feelings!" Sam put a fist on her hip for emphasis.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But that doesn't make it any less weird." He nodded definitely as if that would end the conversation.

"It!? You didn't even bother to tell what gender they were? Or what gender they want to be identified as?" Sam accused.

The ghost boy threw his hands in the air in a grand shrug, "Well if I say 'it' I'm not picking either gender so therefore no offenses can be made right? 'It' can still be a girl or a boy! Problem solved!" he smirked one of his coy mischievous smiles and crossed his arms sure he won this time.

"Or it could have been both!" Tucker added with a smile.

The paler boy turned to his friend and cocked an eyebrow, "Why do you sound more excited about that one?" the halfa quickly brought back his trickster nature, "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Wha-what!? NO!" Tucker protested loudly.

The Goth rolled her eyes, "If you two are done with your little spat, shouldn't we be heading back now?"

Danny nodded and changed back to his human form. "Yeah, but let's take the long way? I wanna clear my head a bit more."

His friends nodded and they turned to start heading to their journey back to his place when someone ran up to them.

" 'Ello there! Yes, hi! Couldn't help but notice you just caught the person I was looking for. Could I have them back?"The lanky stranger asked rather quickly.

"And you are?" Sam asked accusingly.

"Oh right!" the man did a quick near bow and held out quickly to all three of them too fast for any of them to grab then held fast to his own jacket, "I'm the Doctor. Now about that captive of yours, I still need them."

"Doctor? Doctor who?" Tucker asked with his eyebrow cocked to its highest extant.

The Doctor smiled the smile of a very please and slightly mad man, "Oh that never gets old."

Throughout the entire conversation, Danny had been rather quite, nearly invisible to the conversation, when he finally spoke up, "You're not from around here are you?"

The Doctor looked to Danny and looked him over, and then locked eyes with him, "No. And in a way neither are you." The mysterious man paused then walked around Danny examining him like he was puzzle that needed to be solved. "Would you want to come along with me? I could show you the stars."

Any hint of suspicion was instantly whipped from Danny's face but he was quickly interrupted.

"Well if that's not the shadiest thing I've ever heard I don't know what is." Sam spat as she quickly as she stepped defensively in front of her star stuck friend.

"Yeah, and how exactly are you gonna do that? Got some high tech telescope tucked in that coat of yours?" Tucker asked just as protectively.

"Technically yes, but I have something much better than that. I think the sky is better seen when you are up there with it." And with that The Doctor gestured to a large blue box nestled between two buildings.

"Why do you want us to come with you?" Danny asked easily as if he was talking to an old friend. He didn't know why but he felt no reason to be worried about this man. It's not that he didn't find the situation weird, which it so was, but he fought ghosts every day for the last four years. This was almost normal compared to some of the stunts that the ghosts could pull. Heck, even Vald did some pretty weird and creepy stuff.

The odd mystery man smiled, "Simple, I see you have traveled before. And you seem like you could all be an interesting group to take with me. I normally try to stick to adults-"

"We're all 18 here!" Sam interjected.

"Older adults, but you all seem to be wise beyond your years. I'm sure that that wasn't the first time you've been in a fight like that, right?" The Doctor finished.

"h-how did you know about that?" Danny stuttered.

"How else would I know that you have the alien I was looking for?" The Doctor replied quickly.

After several more minutes of debate, mostly from Sam, The Doctor finally convinced them, her, that he was of no threat and led them to his blue box.

"No I just want to warn you now," The Doctor said as he stopped in front of the doors and took a deep breath, "it's bigger on the inside." Before any of them could even process what he could mean by that he pulled the doors wide and entered.

Needless to say Tucker nearly had a tech induced heart attack.


	5. In Search Of Perfection (Vlad)

Vlad Masters was the man with the plan. Everything he did was always part of a much bigger picture. He had been like that for years now, always playing life like a grand chess game.

This is probably why this plan didn't quite work out the way he wanted. This part had been put together on the fly, he had _improvised_.

He cursed his mistake every day, but it was too late now. She was already aware. Better to see how long she'd last and start over then, instead of scrapping her now. This could be good research for his real project.

His grand plan had been to make a clone of his young nemesis, to make said clone be his source of happiness and affection. Maybe then he'd be happy?

But while he was thinking and working on the perfect clone a few _mistakes_ happened. Which it was a perfectly logical side effect of perfection. But they could become very useful minions later, he guessed. What distracted him was, again, the thought of his love, Maddie. Why stop at cloning the boy? Why just have the perfect half-ghost son? Why not have the perfect half-ghost _wife_?

And he put the perfect son project on hold and began.

Unfortunately he only had the DNA samples from Danny, but he was sure he could reverse engineer it and take out the blasted Jack genes. Surely it couldn't be that hard?

He was wrong. Really, really wrong. He got the gender right, and that was all he succeeded in. She was too young and much to Danny.

But when she awoke he realized maybe it wasn't a total failure. She seemed a lot stronger than the other clones. She could transform without the mid-morph sample. Maybe this little mistake would work to his favor after all.

But what to name her? Ah!

"Dannielle."


	6. Redesigning Regret (Redesign)

The only question on Danny's mind today was "Why were ghosts always so weird?" Didn't normal people ever become ghosts? Or was it only the crazy ones?

The blue skinned ghost before him really was one of the oddest he meet to date. She was floating about the high end shops of the mall making a huge mess of juniors department.

"Not finding one you'd like?" Danny asked as he approached.

"No! All of these outfits are so boring! Why don't they care my line here?" the ghost complained as it continued to search through the piles it had tossed on the ground.

"Maybe they don't sell from Ghost Zone?" Danny suggested waiting for the ghost to turn around. So far she didn't seem to be causing any real harm, maybe he could make this quick and tell her how to get back to the Zone.

She perked up at his comment and quickly whirled around. "That must be it!" Once her eyes caught sight of him she stopped and gasped in surprise. "Oh my gosh, _the_ halfa!" She hugged her pink and green fur lined jacketed sleeves to herself.

"Uh, yeah? Why you know me?" Phantom asked slightly confused at her excitement.

"Everybody knows who you are! You saved us from the ghost king! And-" she stopped herself short and then flew very close to him her face inches from his. "You are the perfect person to model my line!"

"What?" Danny tried to protest and question at the same time before it was too late.

She was rather quick and fired a bright pink ectoblast right at his chest and it slammed him to the ground. "oopsie! Guess I don't know my strength!" she giggled as the ghost boy struggled to sit up.

"But being a Halfa means you are the perfect person to show my fashion line to the human world! It would have been better if you were a girl but I'll make do. Anyways, fashion is 99 percent attitude!"she fired another blast at him with a smile. "No pain no gain!"

Danny blackout before he could even begin to wonder what she was talking about.

- (LINE BREAK) -

The next day at school Tucker could not believe what he was seeing. "Danny, what on earth are you wearing?"

"Oh this? I picked up so pretty high end ghost fashion at the mall the weekend. Great isn't it?" Danny said with a satisfied smirk as he turned to model his new pants better.

"Ghost fashion?" Tucker asked with a small crack in his voice.

"Oh yeah. Only the best." Danny said with a quick flip of his hair.

Tucker stared dead pan at his friend, "Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?"

"Tucker please, I'm fine and for your information-" but whatever nonsense the raven haired was about to spout was interrupted by Sam's horrified accusations.

"Why are you wearing _Pink_ pants?!"

"Sam, they're not pink. They're _salmon._ I wouldn't expect you to understand." Danny said prominently with his arms crossed.

"Dude they're pink." Tucker interjected.

"Nobody asked you Tucker!" the, now 'high fashion', ghost kid protested. "It's not every day that Fashionista lets you model her new line of jeans."

Sam couldn't take it any longer and she was oh so very glad she kept that can of spray paint in her bag. "Hey Danny you mind posing for me for a sec, I want to get a picture of you in those wonderful pants."

And just like Sam had planned this odd Danny was quick to strike a pose for her.

"Perfect. Now just hold that while I get my camera out of my bag." She said as she unslung her pack and started to search for the real item in question.

"What are you doing Sam? This is no time for a photo shoot!" Tucker hissed in her ear as he crouched next to her while he continued to not succeed at starring at Danny's sparkly pink stripped pants.

"I know, that was just a ruse you dork. I'm trying to fix the problem. There you are!" She explained quickly as she found both her camera and the spray paint. She stood up and held the camera up for Danny to see while hiding the paint behind her back. "Got it."

She thought about just passing the camera to Tucker but her mischievous side took hold and she really did take a quick picture of Danny. Who knows when that might come in handy?

And before Danny could get out of his perfect model pose she quickly shook, uncapped, and fired the black paint on her unsuspecting victim.

"Sam, why..." A now black jean wearing Danny asked with, were those tears in his eyes?

Sam couldn't help but hiss at the thought of those terrible pink pants. She shuttered and threw the recapped paint back in her bag. "Trust me Danny, I just saved your day."


	7. Please Help Him (AU)

AN: I took a little liberty here with the term AU, by also including the ideas the Phandom has come up with into my inspiration pool. Sometimes they are just _too_ crazy for me to think of them as canon.

* * *

It started last Tuesday. I think... or was it Thursday? Can't of been tomorrow... and it defiantly wasn't today... maybe it didn't start with a 'T' after all. It defiantly ended with a 'day'!

Oh wait I'm getting off topic, sorry. That's been happening a lot lately too... on whatever day this all started.

Oh I know! It was at 10! That's when it happened! That's the "T" I was looking for! Wait... that didn't really help at all, did it? Sorry... again. Maybe I should just get to the story?

* * *

The boy had been blathering on like that for the past hour and it was starting to give Masters a headache.

Rubbing his temples with great frustration he attempted to calmly ask through gritted teeth, "If you could kindly _GET ON WITH IT_!" Vlad took a shaky breath trying very hard to keep his composure, "I'd like to get the bottom of this as _quickly_ as possible."

"Oh right! Sorry about that..." then Daniel's eyes widened as did his pupils when he asked, "Do you have anything to eat? I am quite hungry."

At that strange change in demeanor Samantha intervened. "Danny! Stop it! We talked about this earlier."

The youngest Fenton stopped immediately and quickly apologized, "Sorry Sam. But I did ask! Doesn't that count for something?"

Ms. Mason hesitated momentarily, "Well I guess that's quite an improvement from yesterday. But you already... ate before we got here. Remember?" She spoke to him as though a mother would a young child.

Vlad raised a brow at this but decided it was high time to figure out what was going on. "As much as I'm enjoying Daniel's... weakened mental state, would you mind filling me in on the details Ms. Mason?"

Before she could agree to these most gracious terms, the Foley boy interrupted. "Why can't I tell you?"

"Because I dislike your voice, that's why. Anymore useless questions, boy?" Masters spat.

The dark skinned boy opened his mouth in rebuttal but the girl took the wiser choice and shut him up. "No he doesn't, and I would love to fill you in. Can we sit?"

Vlad nodded and took them to his sitting room and awaited to hear what was sure to be an interesting tale.

* * *

As much as she hated doing this with every fiber of her being, Sam Mason was doing her best to put up with the old windbag. She knew flattery and manors would win him over in a heartbeat, and with her parents she did know all the right things.

She also hated how her parents forced lessons were actually coming in handy. She actually hated every second of this. Ever since last Wednesday, that ghost fight did something to Danny, something strange. They had tried everything they could think of figure out what was wrong with him, which honestly that part was easy. The harder part was trying to hide it and fix it. There wasn't anything helpful in the Fenton's research, or even (to Tucker's dismay) the internet. Jazz tried her best and that's how they got him to how he was now, however unhelpful it was, it was better than how he was on Friday. Sam shook her head at the thought.

It was then she remembered she was suppose to be getting Vlad up to speed. She was also slightly surprised to find out he had no idea anything was wrong with Danny until they showed up. She could have sworn he was watching Danny all the time? She shuddered again. Creepy.

"Well as Danny was trying to say, last Wednesday -" the Goth started but was quickly interrupted.

"At 10!" Danny eagerly interjected beaming from ear to ear.

Sam did her best to repress her worry and smiled, "Yes Danny, at 10. Can I continue now?" she asked as nicely as she could, which felt so wrong to do, but it was the only way to keep him from... well she'd rather not think about it.

Danny nodded, "Yeah I've heard this story before." and turned his gaze to the floor and swung his feet under his chair.

Sam nodded and turned back to Vlad. "A ghost had shown up that night and Danny confronted it as usual. They were fighting when the ghost got the upper hand, it had completely entrapped Danny and then clammed its hand over his mouth. It was taunting how Danny couldn't use his Ghostly Wail if his mouth was covered." Sam took a breath and continued. "Well, he did the only think he could think of. He... he bit the ghost." Sam looked down at her boots and hoped she didn't have to continue, as much as she'd hate to admit it out loud, Vlad was a pretty smart guy. Surely he could figure out what went wrong. She really didn't want to relive it. She already had told the story once before to Jazz.

Vlad cocked his brow again and considered the information as if it needed his approval first.

It probably did.

Vlad nodded and then gestured for her to continue with a simple wave of his hand.

Sam really hated when adults did that. She did her best to stop herself from rolling her eyes and nodded in return continuing, "Well you see Danny got a bite of the... um... the..." she looked at Tucker for help, she didn't know what to call it when Danny was sitting right there. She wasn't sure if it would set him off again if they called it by name.

"Goo." Tucker quickly filled in the look in his eyes showed Sam he not only understood her fear, but also shared it.

"Yeah the 'goo' got in his mouth and well... he's come to like it. And it's done something to him." She absently gestured to all of Danny while avoiding his gaze. "As you can see."

"Goo?" Vlad scoffed, "My dear children you wouldn't happen to be referring to ectoplasm, would you? I thought by now that-"

Whatever Vlad was going to taunt them with got caught in his throat. For Danny, who had been all by completely unaware of the conversation happening right next to him, perked up at the word. Just as Sam had feared, the word was now a trigger.

Danny leapt up from his seat, changed his form mid-flight and pounced right onto Vlad's chest and took a firm hold of the rich man's lapel. "_Give it to me! I need it! Don't you hide it from me! I'll rip you limb from limb if you hide it from me!_"

Foolishly Vlad transformed into his ghost form thinking it would help him. Sam quickly turned away, but no matter how tightly she covered her ears, she couldn't block out the screams.


	8. Found My Friend In The Want Ads (Tucker)

Maddie had assumed that sending her youngest to school should have been an easy way for him to gain friends. It had been relatively easy for her daughter as it had been for her as a child, so it came as a big shock to her when Danny came home from his first day of kindergarten in tears.

It turns out Danny hadn't quite inherited her confidence. Without it the other children picked on him and once it started it was hard to stop.

Outraged, Maddie called the school and demanded something be done for her precious child. Unfortunately she was given a pretty poor excuse, "kids will be kids" and "if he makes a friend he should be fine." But then the teacher added a comment that Mrs. Fenton could tell was a helpful hint and also a great insult, "unless of course, the kids talk to their parents about the boy and they tell their children not to get involved with the weird Fenton's and their crazy fake science."

With that Maddie slammed down the phone and then quickly picked it back up hoping to find a school near-by that would take a later transfer. It was still early in the year, surely someone would have an opening? Even if she had to drive for hours just to get to his new school, it was better than watching him get ridiculed.

But every school she tried said they were full. So she had to tell Danny that bad news that he had to go back to those horrible mean kids and that terrible teacher again for the rest of the year.

"I fig'ered as much." The little boy said with a dejected sigh.

* * *

The school year ended and it had turned out about as well as the teacher had predicted. After the first month or so Danny just got a defeated look to him and soon stopped crying to his mother every night.

"What's the point?" he had asked one night when his mother had brought this up to him, "they're just going to do it again tomorrow." Then he added with a small half smile, "and besides not everyone picks on me. Most of the kids just ignore me now."

So with the first bad year behind them Maddie Fenton decided that she needed to help her son find some friends. So she spent all summer putting Danny in summer day camps and group activities hoping to find someone, anyone would befriend her sweet little boy.

Eventually both Maddie and Danny were getting fed up with their lack of success when the young boy inspired his mother with a wonderful idea.

They were eating breakfast as Jack was sitting at the table laughing at the funnies in the paper when the idea struck them.

With nothing but the back of the paper to look at the young one tried to read the pager to see what was so funny, not quite understanding that the paper had two sides. "What's the 'class-eye-fid's?'"

Maddie, who had been washing the morning dishes paused what she was doing and turned to see what her son was talking about.

It was Jazmine who ended up supplying the answer, "It's the Classifieds, Danny. Not Class-eye-fid's."

"Oh! But I thought 'I's' made an 'eye' sound?" he questioned curiously.

Jazz rolled her turquoise eyes, "Not all the time! Didn't your class teach you anything?" she accused.

"Now Jazmine, that no way to talk to your brother. He's still young, and we aren't born knowing everything now are we?" Maddie scolded in her gentle motherly tone.

"Sorry Mom." Jazz apologized, and then added, "Can I be excused?"

"After you apologized to your brother."

The young red-head did just then the quickly bounced out of the room, soon followed by the man of the house leaving the mother and child alone with the paper.

After a moment of silence Danny timidly asked again, "so what are the class-i-fieds?"

Maddie dried off her hands and sat next to her son to better explain for he was always seemed to be a bit more of a visual learner, "well you see people puts ads here telling everyone about if they are having a garage sale, or if a business is looking for workers, or there's there personals. Those are for people who might be looking for a date."

"Like a play date?"

"Well not quite, more like a grownup date, where a pair of grownups go do grownup things."

"Like watch those night time grownup shows on the TV, like you and daddy do sometimes?"

Maddie smiled at her son's observance and innocence, "Yeah, just like that."

Then the idea struck her, why not put in a play date ad? She could aim it towards new people in town, because she was sure that they had tapped the resources of the long standing residents of Amity Park.

* * *

It took about a week for her to get a reply. The phone rang early on a Monday morning and Mrs. Fenton was quick to answer the call although she was unaware of who or why they were calling. She just liked to answer calls quickly. It helped with her reflexes.

It was a woman named Mrs. Foley, and she had seen the ad and was hoping to meet up. Maddie was quite eager to agree but decided she was going to surprise Danny with the news in case it didn't turn out well.

Maddie decided it would be best to meet up outside of the house so as to not spoil the surprise for Danny, and also to double to showing the new resident around town.

They meet up a local coffee shop and Maddie began her interrogation.

"So what brings you to Amity?" Maddie asked after the introductions and pleasantries were out of the way.

"Oh work mostly, and the signs say it's a nice place to live."

They both chuckled at this and Maddie couldn't help but throw in her knowledge on the town.

"You know that actually really an ironic sign, seeing as this town is a very big hot spot for supernatural activity!" Maddie explained enthusiastically, but then realized that maybe she shouldn't have mentioned her work so early in the conversion.

A wary look started to cross the other's face, "Oh?" she asked cautiously.

Maddie sighed and decided she just better explain now and get it over with, "Me and my husband are scientist, we mainly focus in the paranormal study of ghosts. And it happens are work reputation has affected our sons ability to get along with the other children in town." Maddie let out a deep sigh and continued to get this all off her chest, "Which is odd because our older daughter does fine in school with the children her age. Then again lately Jazz has started expressing her disinterest in our work!" Maddie sighed again and relaxed in her chair and took a long sip of her coffee. She just knew she blew it.

Mrs. Foley just blinked for a moment taken in all this information and made her decision. Maddie and her husband may do strange work but she seems like a wonderful mother to be trying so hard for her son. Who cares if they did something odd for a living, who was she to judge? And she knew all about being judged for something out of your control.

"It sounds to me like your son is being punished for something he should be awarded for." She began, "it seems to me that the only time kids act that way is because your son is trying in his own way to defend you. You and your husband."

"Defend us?" Maddie tilted her head slightly, "what do you mean?"

Foley smiled, "Well, now I mean no offense, but I think your daughter played the 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em' card, while your son, well he didn't. He's too loyal."

She let the message sink in and then added, "And I think that's an admiral quality for my son to pick up."

After that, the two decided it was time for their sons to meet.


	9. And Laughter Brought Us Together (Sam)

The first week of school was always the worst, Sam thought to herself as she crossed her arms and scowled at the board from the back of the classroom.

Seeing as she really didn't have any friends she always tended to one of the first people in the room. Well her and the eager to learn nerds at the front of the room. She didn't really mind that though, it always gave her prim back seat choices. For this class she decided to take the middle back seat, it shock things up a bit for her and she was hoping it'd confuse the heck out of this 7th science grade teacher.

Sam smirked in spite of herself and relaxed in her uncomfortable school chair.

Without her noticing the room had started to fill up and two boys had taken the two seats next to her. For a moment they fought over the prim window seat.

"Aw come on Danny you got the window in math, cut a guys a break would ya?" the darker skinned boy complained with his hands firmly on the chairs back.

The other boy, Danny apparently, held the gaze of the other for a moment and then broke out into a wide grin. "Oh well when you put it like that! Here," he spread his arms wide putting the desk on display, then he dropped his voice into a mockingly bad British accent, "Take it good sir! You have earned it!" then he bowed out and took the seat right next to Sam.

Sam rolled her eyes, "boys." She muttered under her breath. But she realized that they were kind of funny, and a much better source for holding her attention than the teacher droning on at the front of the room about the school policies. Like that haven't heard them in every other class, please.

She turned her attention back to the boys and their animated conversation.

"So my parents are finally letting me go out to the Nasty Buger alone!" Danny paused and rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "err, well I mean as long as I go with somebody. Like you Tuck!"

"That's awesome man! But how'd you convince 'em?" 'Tuck' said leaning his arm on his desktop as he turned in his chair to better face Danny.

So much for even using the window seat, Sam rolled her eyes again. He made such a fuss and he's not even using it?

She was starting to get annoyed with their 'normal teen' conversation and was about to tune them out again to find something else better to do when Danny answer brought her attention to full focus.

"I beat them that if they couldn't prove the place was haunted I could go." At this point Danny's back was to her but she could hear the smile on his face.

Haunted? Wait a minute... Danny... that name started to sound familiar. That wasn't Danny Fenton was it? The weird kid with the ghost crazed parents? She had always wondered what he was like. But he seemed too normal to be that kid!

The boys reached across the aisle and did a quick fist bump, "way to go man! You should use their ghost hunting against them more often!"

Danny let out a nervous laugh and rubbed his neck again, "Oh I couldn't do that. It'd be mean. And I think they'd figure me out after like, the third time. I'm not really that great of a liar, you know that Tucker."

Whoa! It really was the ghost kid!

Before she could do anything with this new found knowledge the teacher's voice broke through.

"Fenton! Foley! Do I need to separate you too already?"

Already? Sam thought it odd that the teacher seemed to know them so well on the first day.

"No sir," Danny mumbled quietly.

Sir? Did he just call Mrs. Catalyst a sir? Oh no.

Suddenly Danny realized his mistake and his head shot up to attention, "Ma'am! I'm mean Ma'am! I-I I am so sorry." He looked down again trying his best to hide his shame, and the small flush of embarrassment that was creeping across his checks.

Mrs. Catalyst glared intently all the way to the back of the room and offhandedly added, "It seems the young Fenton would benefit greatly from Intro to Health Science class this year." Then she turned back to the board and wrote the assignment for the day.

If Danny was blushing in embarrassment before, it was nothing to how bright his face got with that comment.

And just like expected the other kids in class couldn't help but burst out laughing at his expense.

Ooh that had to suck. She was really glad that wasn't her right now. She was usually alright with getting a bit of negative attention from authority figures, but never had she suffered class wide ridicule. She had proudly got herself the time of reputation that stopped that sort of thing.

The teacher then started explaining how she wanted them to do a quick in class project. They would each break up into partners and then get a packet on one of the subjects that they would be covering that year.

Of course the students started to complain. Why did they have to do work on things they haven't learned yet? They kept complaining and, just as Sam knew she would, the teacher added onto the assignment.

They not only had to fill out the packets, but now, they had to present what they knew to the class. Luckily they were at least allowed to use their books.

The class quickly broke up into groups and, again she knew, she would be partner-less. She was perfectly fine with this of course, whenever she was forced to have a partner they just slowed her down and she still had to do all the work anyway.

So she sat quietly in her seat and awaited her packet. She really hoped it would be something easy, like planet cells or something. She knew all about planets, having your own garden and parents willing and able to buy you anything you wanted for a "nice healthy hobby" worked out quite well for her. She had just ordered a Venus flytrap, and it should be arriving any day now! Now if only she could find more information on those weird blood blossoms she read about once. Sure she only read about them once, in a really, really old book, but they sounded really cool!

The teacher started to go around the room and passing out the work packets when she came onto Sam. "Flying solo?" the teacher asked brow arched in disapproval.

Sam smirked at her look and nodded, "I like it better that way." Then she took a daring look in the eyes of her perceived opponent, "Is that a problem," she let it hand for a moment then added the final touch, "Sir?" Sam couldn't help the mischievous smirk that spread from ear to ear.

She heard a few kids near her giggle and was pretty sure the loudest snorts of repressed laughter was coming from Danny and Tucker. And when Sam snuck a glace it was mostly Tucker. But Danny was giving her a grateful and confused smile.

Before Sam could stop, the thought of how cute Danny was with a confused grin crossed her mind and she quickly looked back to the very annoyed teacher.

"well it seems you seem to be suffering the same vision problems as Fenton here. Maybe working together would help clear that up for you two!" She turned her venomous gaze towards the unsuspecting Danny.

His eyes were wide with surprise when he tried to protest, "But I'm working with Tucker! We already started on the packet."

"Well you'll just have to start again with Ms. Mason then won't you?" The teacher spat as she slammed the packet on Sam's desk and stormed up to the front of the room and back to her desk.

Danny sat in his desk a bit shellshock until threw her eraser at him. "Hey! Can we get this over with already?" she hissed to him.

He shook himself out of his daze and pulled the eraser out of his shaggy hair. "Oh, umm, sure." He carefully picked himself and his desk up off the floor and scooted his way over to hers. "So what did we get?" he asked nicely enough.

Sam finally dropped her gaze to the packet and read the header. "Astronomy." She pushed the paper back to Danny as she reached under her desk for her textbook. "ugh, what is that again. I know I've heard it some-"

But Danny was quick to answer, "Space!"

Sam pulled herself and her book up to examine Danny, did her just go nuts or something? Why was he so excited about this?

Almost as if answering her thoughts Danny continued as he flipped open the packet and started reading the page as if it was the best thing he'd ever seen, "Aw Man this is gonna be so easy!"

And before she could question further Danny started filling in the answers on the back page!

"Whoa there Louis Armstrong, we need to make sure those answers are even right! I can't have you fill in just anything! I haven't even read it yet." Sam protested.

Danny stopped what he was writing so abruptly and had such a strange look on his face she was starting to think she offended him somehow.

"It's Neil." He said simply then went back to his writing. "But if you want to double check it, it's fine with me. No need to shout -" he paused then let out another nervous laugh with a rub of the back of his neck. "I guess I didn't quite catch your name earlier, I'm Danny by the way, You?"

"What?" Was all Sam could manage.

Danny jerked his head back and gave her a confused look, "That's a weird name."

"wha-? NO! It's Sam! I meant to ask what you meant by that 'it's Neil' thing." She clarified.

"Oooh!" Danny said with understanding, "You were calling me Louis Armstrong and I'm assuming that it was a 'first man on the moon' reference." He paused for a moment and she nodded so he continued. "well It's Neil, you said the wrong Armstrong. It's ok though, lots of people get them confused." He smiled kindly and handed over the completed packet.

She took it and then started to check it over with what was in the book, by the looks of it he wasn't bluffing about knowing his stuff. Every answer was right. She was also pretty surprised at how nice his handwriting was. Most guys writing she saw could hardly even be called chicken scratch, but Danny's... well it was kind of girly. So much cursive!

"Umm you alright? Those are right aren't they?" Danny asked seemingly less sure of himself.

She snapped out of her awe and nodded. "Yeah as far as I can tell we're gonna ace this..." and then Sam had a huge wicked smile sprout on her face.

Danny started to get a little worried about that look, he had heard she could be a bit spooky, but was really hoping those were rumors.

Sam then turned to Danny and her mischievous smile softened into more of a sly grin. "Mrs. Catalyst is going to be pissed!"

They both shared that laugh as loudly as they pleased. They laughed even harder when the teacher made them present first.

Her face was priceless, and it bought the best friendship they ever could have hoped for.


	10. Lively Conversations In Dead Man's Land

Normally Danny didn't mind field trips. When they happened during normal school hours and meant he got out of going to all of his other classes, then those field trips were great!

The kind he didn't like were the ones that went to really boring places, for really stupid reasons, at 6 am on a Saturday! These were the field trips that drove him up the wall! Add that to the fact that he was up until 4 am the night before getting only 1 hour of precious, beautiful, wonderful sleep, well to put it lightly, it wasn't pleasant.

With Danny's luck it was the later of the two that he was forced to endure. It turns out there was a rather big assignment about some classic old western book, and Danny didn't read a single page. He meant to, really he did, but ghost hunting and a tad bit of laziness too. But when you fall asleep upon hearing the title how can you muster the effort in opening the thing?

To make up for failing that there was an extra credit field trip to a local ghost town tourist trap, and anyone getting lower than a C was strongly urged to take the trip. In other words he had to go, or else.

What made it even worse was that Sam & Tucker weren't going to suffer through this with him. They were actually doing pretty well in the class and had even done the reading. The more he thought about it, they had been reminding him to do it too. Maybe he should have listened? Danny shrugged it off, live and learn.

Hmmm, did that really apply to him? Half-live and learn? Or half-live and half-learn? Wait no, that sounded dumb. He shook his head trying to clear his mind. He was suppose to be using this bus ride as a much needed nap, not a time for thinking.

Sam was right though, with him away they needed to have somebody to watch the town in case any ghosts got lose. And hey maybe this would be a little day off for once?

He should stop expecting good things to happen to him. They never do.

* * *

"Giddy-up Fenton the kid, we're here!" Dash shouted rudely right into the sleeping boy's ear.

Danny shot up in his seat standing the in best fighting stance he could on a bus before the words registered in his brain. Once he remembered where he was his shoulders slumped and he glared at Dash feeling his ghostly energy burn and not exactly caring.

Before Danny could even think of a retort Mr. Lancer stood up at the front of the bus, coffee thermos in tow, and addressed the small group of students, "As Mr. Baxter clearly pointed out we have arrived. Because it's late in the season the town of Banshee Hills -"

"Like, why'd they call it that? Were they planning on it being a ghost town?" Star interrupted.

Lancer let out a deep sigh of mild frustration, didn't these kids know better than that by now? "No, no one goes through the trouble of making a town just to abandon it. This is what the term 'Ghost Town' refers to, a town that has been abandoned."

It was then Dashes turn to interrupt, "So does that make Amity a ghost town? Cuz it's all haunted and stuff."

Lancer did his best not to get annoyed and mentally reminded himself that he was in fact stuck with the flunking students, not to many bright ones in this lot. "No Mr. Baxter, out town is just haunted. Any more questions or can I continue explaining?"

The bus was quite. Danny did his best not to snicker at Lancer's annoyance, good thing he wasn't the only one here who wanted to be somewhere else.

With that Lancer continued explaining some of the history of the town, "What I was going to say before I was interrupted, was that the town got its name from the sound of the wind blowing through the hillside. It was said to sound like the ghostly wail of the dead."

'Ghostly Wail? Don't I have an attack like that?' Danny thought to himself. 'I'm sure that's just a coincidence. Not really that hard of a term to think of... surely there wasn't an actual ghost over there. Right?'

* * *

With the possible threat of a perceived chance that their just might be a ghost in the area, Danny's senses went on high alert. While Lancer prattled on about the history of the place after the students disembarked the bus, the ghost boy took his chance to take in his surroundings.

Including himself there were 7 people in their group, Dash, Star, Lancer, Kwan, Ricky Marsh, and Valarie? Why was she here? He was really starting to worry that he might have accidentally ignored her on the bus earlier. Well, only one way to find out.

Danny carefully crept his way over to Valarie's side and gently nudged her shoulder with his. "Psst, hey Val." The dark haired boy whispered to the dark skin girl beside him.

Valarie turned, slightly startled, and then gave him a warm smile. "Oh, hey Danny, glad to see you awake. Have a rough night?"

Danny blushed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "You could say that."

"Was it the ghosts?" she asked nonchalantly.

"Wha-what?!" Danny nearly shouted on high alert now. Did she know his secret?! How could he be alive still if she did!?

"I-I mean that I heard there was a pretty rough fight last night, I think they were on your side of town." She explained nervously and quickly added, "So I heard."

"Oh!" He was relieved and tried not to grin seeing how hard she was covering up her own secret. "Yeah they made quite a racket. I'm just glad my parents didn't wake up and storm the streets. That would have been a real disaster."

They both laughed as quietly as they could, shared a glance that last a few seconds too long and then both got quite and looked away.

To break the silence Danny asked the only question that came to mind. "So why are you here?"

He then instantly regretted it. Could he be any ruder? "Oh that didn't come out right. What I meant was- I er-" he really had no idea how to recover from that one.

Valarie smiled, "it's ok, I know what you mean. And it's own little way it's a compliment."

"I-it is?" Danny was pleasantly shocked to hear this. Still very confused, but pleased.

"Well it means you think I'm doing well enough in class to not even need this extra credit. Which technically you're right, but just barely. Figured I might as well take it and do that much better." She explained.

Danny nodded in understanding and then added, "Wish I could say the same." He broke into his nervous habit again, "Maybe I shouldn't have said that hu?"

She giggled slightly, "aw but that's what I like about you. You're honest."

Then Danny smiled more to himself when he added, "But that doesn't mean I can't keep a secret."

* * *

It turns out that just showing up to the field trip was how you got the extra credit. You actually had to do something. Lancer had set up a treasure hunt of sorts, just partner up and the more things on the list you find the more points you got.

It seemed easy enough, and with Valarie with him the trip might not be a waste of time after all. It had been a pretty long time since they had some proper alone time after that brief time that they had dated.

Danny confidently turned to Valarie, "Partners?" he more stated than asked.

"Partners." She agreed with a quick nod.

After all the groups had been made and they had collected their treasure hunting lists Lancer had one finally thing to add, "You may have free rein of the town but if something goes wrong you all lose your extra credit. Got it?" he finished sternly.

They all quickly nodded and promised in various ways how they would be on their best behavior. Once he was satisfied with their jumbled response he nodded and lead them to the old saloon, "We will meet up here at noon for lunch. If you aren't done by then," he paused as if thinking what that would mean for them, when it hit him, "Well too bad. Rome might not have been built in a day but this trip will sure be over in one!"

With that the students quickly split up and started to look over their lists.

The list included:  
A rusty nail (please don't pull them from the buildings)  
A spur  
One glass bottle  
3 rocks (try to make it interesting)  
A Horseshoe  
One sample of the main export of the town. (and no I won't tell you what it is again.)

Danny and Valarie looked at each other, "you didn't by chance hear what the main export was did you?" Danny asked worried about the answer.

"No... I was a bit busy talking with you." She admitted. "Wanna see if our other classmates were paying attention?"

He nodded and they went to the first pair they saw, which was Kwan & Dash.

Valerie saw Danny's slight hesitation to approach the bigger boys so she took the initiative. "Hey Kwan! Mind if I ask a quick question?"

He quickly turned to them as Dash speed off. "Oh hey Val, sure! What is it?"

"We were wondering what the last item was. We were kinda talking in class." She asked and added the last bit with a sly smile.

Danny wasn't sure why but both he and Kwan blushed a little at that. Kwan recovered much better than Danny would have if he were in the situation. "Oh yeah, me and Dash were just talking about that. I'm not really sure but I remember he said something about flour. So I'm gonna grab a bag if it from one of these stores, but Dash wasn't sure and thought maybe it was a flower, so he's gonna go pick every flower he sees. Says one of them will have to be right! Either way we are so gonna win this!" He thrust his fists into the air and shouted a quick battle cry and ran off to check the stores for his prize.

The two raised their brows and smirked slightly, "well that was helpful" Valerie commented with a roll of her emerald eyes.

"Yeah but I really can't wait to see the bouquet that Dash is going to present Lancer later" Danny snickered.

They both laughed at the ridiculous thought of Dash with way too many flowers giving them to a very started but also very flattered Mr. Lancer.

Just then Ricky & Star came their way. "Oh hey we over heard you were having some trouble. Need any help?" Ricky asked eagerly.

Danny chuckled as he turned, "Actually that'd be great! Do you know what the last item on the list is?"

Star once again interrupted before Ricky could answer. "Well Dash was sorta right, it's a flower. But it had some creepy name. I didn't remember what it was cuz it was too spooky. That gothy friend of yours would like it."

"Right, so-" Danny started but was cut off by Star.

"Do you remember what it was called? Maybe there's like a sign or something so we can just get it and go."

The red-headed boy nodded, "well I don't remember the exact name but Star's right it was a spooky name for a plant. I think it was like 'Bleeding Blooms' or something like that?" Ricky scratched his hat trying to place the name.

Danny's face paled, they weren't talking about what he thought they were talking about were they? He had to know for sure, "They weren't Blood Blossoms were they?" he asked hoping his voice didn't sound as shaky as it felt.

Ricky's eyes lit up "Yeah that's it! Thanks man! That woulda bugged me all day." He smiled and quickly wondered off after Star who was now trying to find cell service.

The only thought running circles in Danny's mind now was 'I'm going to die.' Just what he needed today, death. Half-death was troublesome enough!

It was Valerie that broke him out of his self pitied mental track. "You ok Danny? You look kinda pale all of a sudden." She asked with concern.

"Hu? Wha? Oh! Right... ummm... would it be ok if we didn't even bother looking for that flower and if you see it before I do steer me in the complete opposite direction?" Danny asked with a very nervous grin hoping that she wouldn't ask why but knowing she would.

"Why?"

"I'm a... ummm..." great now he had to give her a reason. He didn't quite think that far ahead in that avoidance plan. "Umm, would you believe me if I said I'm allergic?" he paused and then quickly added "Because I am! I'm really, really, really allergic! To Blood Blossoms... just Blood Blossoms." He looked down and was really starting to think she wouldn't buy it. He really needed to work on his lying. Maybe he could take lessons or something?

But to his surprise, and great relief, she bought it, "Oh gosh I'm sorry Danny! I didn't know. But I've never even heard of these flowers before today, how'd you even find out?" she asked with curiosity glistening in her eyes.

"I- well- you see-" he began to walk as he talked to help himself think and to make sure they were out of earshot of the others. "I was out exploring the- uhhh...Outdoors." he took a quick glance at Valerie who was following right beside him, "Maybe we should looks for the other things while we talk, it's a bit of a story."

"Oh right! Sure thing. We best mosey on hu?" seeing her smile was a bit of a distraction for Danny, but he quickly regained his senses.

He continued to tell his story and decided that the closer it was to the truth the easier it would be, he'd just have to leave out the whole time travel & ghost zone bit. Well that and the part where Vlad was trying to kill them. Wow he really was trying to kill them wasn't he? Hard to tell that at the time. "So me, Sam & Tucker were hiking along this trail we hadn't been to before and I-" he paused thinking how to tell her how he ended up in a ring of those horrible flowers. "Oh right, I fell off the path and slipped down a small ledge. I was fine because it wasn't that far of a fall, and I was mostly sliding on my bu- pants." He chuckles a little at his almost saying butt in front of Val. How rude.

She was very entranced with his story but it turned out she was really good at multitasking. She stopped to pick up a rusty nail off the path and urged him to continue.

"So I was a bit dazed from suddenly falling but then everything just started to hurt..." Danny stopped to pick up a small rock and tossed it lightly in his hand. "I think I screamed. I don't think I've ever felt pain like that before in my whole life... well-" Danny paused and thought back on the portal accident. No that defiantly hurt more. The blossoms were a close second though, but not as bad as Ecto-electrocution. He shuddered and started to forget he was talking to anyone.

"Danny?" Valerie barely touched his shoulder but the contact made him jump slightly.

"Oh! Right I was telling a story! Sorry about that Val." He let out a nervous chuckle, "so where was I before my brain decided to go into sleep mode?" he added hoping that would be a good excuse.

"Man you really need to invest in some ear plugs or something." They laughed and after they got it out of their systems she reminded him, "You were saying how the flowers were the worst pain for you in your whole life... but then you got distracted, it almost seemed like you were thinking of something that was worse?"

"Oh I was trying to think of something but the only think I could think of was death." Danny quickly explained.

The look Valerie gave him helped him realize maybe he should have worded that better.

"I mean, I figure dying might be worse, like if it's a painful way... like being electrocuted." He trailed off a bit and added more when he saw that look was still on her face, "I had a dream about it once. While ago now but sometimes it comes back to me when I'm umm stressed and stuff."

"You had a dream where you died? That can't be good!" Valarie was giving a very concerned look that Danny was used to seeing on his sister. He needed to fix it now! You cannot have a girlfriend... or ex-girlfriend, remind you of your sister. That was not a line he was going to cross.

"Oh Jazz says that with what our parents do that it's not so bad, and added some other psychology mumbo jumbo but I had toned her out by that point." He had waved his hands in circles for emphasize.

She finally smiled again and picked up another rock and added it to their treasure hunting bag. "Oh you had me worried for a second there."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I just kept saying all this weird stuff hu? Anyway wasn't I going to tell you how I survived the evil plants?" Danny asked with a warm half smile.

She nodded and he continued. "Well I'm lying there super uncomfortable like, and then Sam remembers that she had heard, well in a book, so I guess read, that you could eat the flowers! So Tucker ended up eating them and once they were gone I felt better. A bit sore but nothing a good night's rest wouldn't solve."

"But what if Tucker had been allergic to them too?"

Danny stopped walking and looked to the sky. "You know, we honestly hadn't even thought of that." And after telling her that story Danny felt pretty proud of himself, he had done a pretty good job.

Valerie laughed, "You have some really weird friends you know that?"

"Of course I do!" Danny smiled back and spotted what could be a possible item on their list just up ahead. "Who else would befriend the Ghost Hunters of Amity Park's weird kid?" he bent to pick up just what he thought he saw, a small broken spur.

He spun the small disk and watched it go as he made his way back to his partner.

"Danny, are you ok?" she asked as she put her hand on the spur stopping its movements.

Danny brought his attention back to her and tried very hard not to think about how close her hand was to his. "Yeah. Why?"

"It's just what you just said... I-I hope really you don't feel that way." The look in her eyes was so full of caring and concern it took a moment for Danny to pull himself out of her gaze.

"Oh!" but then he remembered how. "Oh crud that sounded really bad didn't it? I just- I-I... It must be the lack of sleep. I say weird things when I'm tired."

She cocked a brow and took the spur as she spoke, "You've blamed you crudy sleep schedule at least three times today. How many nights have you missed sleep?" she asked in a bit of an accusing manner with a hand on her hip after she had put the item away.

"I- um..." Danny tried to think but it seemed too high of a number, maybe he could ask her to reword it? "I think it would be easier to count when I do sleep, than when I don't." he admitted.

She gave him an expectant stare, "Ok how about this week, how much did you sleep this week?"

"I'm thinking 6. Yeah or maybe more like 6 and three quarters? That sounds good." Danny answered with a satisfied nod.

She let out a sigh of relief. "Oh well that's not to ba-" she stopped herself and then thought about what he had just said again. "6 and three quarters? How do you sleep 6 and three quarters nights?" she asked slowly.

Danny couldn't help it but he busted out laughing. "Nights?" he laughed more. "Oh Valerie that's great! Nights!" when he would think back on this later he would realize it wasn't that funny, but he was at that point of sleep deprivation where everything was funny. And once you start laughing it's really hard to stop. "If that was how many nights I had I wouldn't have a problem then would I?" he was laughing so hard he had to sit down and luckily they were by a shop so he could rest on the stoop. He took a deep breath to try and calm down but he couldn't wipe the grin off his face.

"Then what were you counting?" she asked warily taking a seat next to him.

"Hours." He said simply. "Well plus the wonderful 5 and half hours I got on Sunday! That was beautiful! I always get the best sleep when Mom & Dad are out of town. I think people should sing songs about sleep. They'd be the best songs."

Valarie gave her sleep deprived friend a long hard stare, it was a tad hard for him to read but her words distracted him, "They do have songs about sleep."

Danny had been a tad distracted when the glint of a glass bottle under the stoop caught his attention. He replied as he got up to gather the bottle but his movements were more like a cat would stalk it's pray before a pounce. "Oh yeah? What are they like?"

"They're called Lullaby's. Maybe you should listen to a few when you get home. I'm sure I could send you some links on where to download the good ones." She answered while curiously watching the boy's odd behavior.

He paused for a brief moment then slowly retracted from under the wood bottle and a shiny rock in tow. He looked up at her with a coy smile as he sat back on his heels. "I'd think I'd like that."

They both laughed for a good long time. It took several minutes for them to get to a state where they could breathe properly, and a few more before they stop spontaneously giggling when they looked at each other.

Valerie was leaning against one of the posts while Danny did they same with the store's wall straight across from her when she looked up. "Hey it's the last thing we need." Valerie gestured to the wall above Danny's head.

Danny turned to look and there indeed was a horseshoe above the doorway. He turned back to her and questioned her with a small smile, "Weren't we not suppose to take things off of the buildings?"

"You see any horses around here?" She said with the most mischievous beautiful smile he had ever seen.


	11. When Therapists Make It Worse (Jazz)

She'd been a Ghost-Getter for a while now and after Jazz had been repeatedly unwelcome to join Danny and his friends with ghost fighting she decided to do what she was good at, studying!

So one night she approached Danny and asked to see the notes he had gathered on the ghosts.

"Why? You going to actually learn their names now?" Danny replied with a bit of a smirk.

Jerk. "No! Well yes, I mean-" she let out a bit of a frustrated yell. "Danny would you stop being so difficult! I'm just trying to help! I know you don't really want me out there fighting with you-"

"Oh you noticed?" he interrupted sarcastically.

The sister took a deep breath to keep from yelling at her little brother, "Is there something wrong? You're a bit more hostile than usual. I thought we were getting along now?" She really was doing her very best to be understanding. she knew he's still young and tends be a bit emotional sometimes.

He sighed, "ah I'm sorry Jazz, it's just the ghosts have been really persistent lately and I hardly get any sleep anymore. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"Oh," it was very refreshing to get straight answers out of him, and she was sure it's good for him to have someone to be honest with too. "Want to talk more in your room?" Jazz suggested.

He simply nodded and led the way.

The red-headed girl took a seat in his rolling desk chair and let him have the bed, "So it sounds to me like you need to vent, what's going on little brother?"

Danny let a small smile escape his lips, "well I guess I've just been super busy you know? It's like every five minutes my ghost sense goes off and I have to run off and go ghost. Life would be so much easier for me if I didn't have to do it, but that doesn't mean the ghosts would be gone." He flopped back on his bed and let out a deep sigh. "Sometimes I wi-" he snapped his mouth shut and perked up looking around to check around as if to see that no one was listening and continued. "I would really like to take a day off, but I know I can't." he finished with his shoulders slumping in a mix of defeat and relaxation.

Despite her above average intelligence she was a tad confused at his actions, "Why'd you do that?" I asked ever curious.

He was a tad confused so I clarified. "You changed your sentence. You were going to say wi-"

Danny then jumped up from the bed and clamped his hands over her mouth. "Shhh! Don't say that word! She might hear you!"

Jazz removed his hands slightly annoyed, "Who will?"

Danny sighed and gently pushed me aside so he could log on to his computer. He opened his ghost files and clicked on the image of a female ghost then pointed, "Her."

She scooted the chair back and read the notes:  
Name: Desiree, the Wishing Ghost  
Main powers: grants wishes to anyone who says "I wish".  
-Also the more wished she grants the more powerful she gets! Do Not Wish unless it is to defeat her!  
Times fought: 3  
Other: She was a harem girl that got her hearts desire, her own kingdom. Then the Sultans jealous wife banished her and she died of a broken heart and old age.

There was a blurry photo that Sam took, along with drawing that Danny must have done, and a list of what looked like statistics. Tucker must have added those.

"Oh, well that's good to know." Then she decided now would be as good as any to bring up her idea. "That's right! I was thinking that I could help by keeping some notes on the ghosts you fight. I can be in charge of updating these," she gestured to the computer, "If that would be alright with you. I can always put a copy of this on my computer so I'm not messing with your stuff."

Danny looked down considering my offer. It took him a moment or two but eventually he lifted his head with a decision. "You know that might not be too bad of an idea. I'll have Tuck come over tomorrow and upload the files and the anti-ghost software. But I can show you what I've got so far now if you want?" He smiled again and I couldn't help but nod in agreement.

It didn't take very long to go through the files because most of them were pretty sparse. Some included the ghost's homes in the Ghost Zone but not all of them.

Jazz suggested that we add a danger meter to indicate how difficult they were to fight. Danny agreed and they made it a simple system, five stars going from, as Danny put it, 'easy to impossible'.

One star was for the non-threatening ones, two stars were for the very weak ones, 3 was for the more difficult enemies, four was for what Danny called 'I need back up!' and five was 'Do not engage!'

The siblings went back through the flies and added the system and applied it to the ghosts. Danny joked we should also have an annoyance scale but she did my best to steer him away from that idea, mainly because she had a feeling that those scales would change along with his mood. She didn't dare tell him that though.

* * *

The next day Tucker came and did as Danny asked quite easily. He cracked a few jokes about how they were now going to have books about each ghost and that she would give them pop quizzes but she did her best to laugh along and not get mad. Sure she was going to add more to what little they had but she wasn't going write novels about it. She wasn't her parents!

She looked through the notes again and noticed that most of the ghosts didn't have a history or back story. The only one she could find was in Desiree's file.

Odd, she thought to herself. She decided to ask her brother if he had possibly left it out.

"Hey Danny, was that all there was in your notes?" Jazz asked as she approached her brother on his way the front door.

He turned and looked around searching his mind. "Yeah pretty sure. Why?"

"Well it's just," she hesitated unsure how to word this, "there's hardly any information at all."

"Geez Jazz what did you expect? The ghosts don't really go around spouting their whole life story when they show up." Tucker scoffed with a kind grin.

Danny chuckled and added, "But sometimes they do shout out their plans."

Both the boys laughed and continued out the door.

"Boys" the older teen muttered to the wind.

* * *

She spent the day gather outside research on the ghosts in the flies. She checked the local papers, she checked paranormal websites, she went to the library, and even, as much as it pained her to, went through her parent's research!

She wasn't able to get much more information and it bugged her. How could a town so obviously haunted have so little information of the specters haunting it? She started to consider studying ghosts for a living just so there was some actual information out there, but then remembered that she didn't want to do that. She wasn't her parents after all.

After hours of compiling what little she had and organizing it into separate piles of facts or speculation or theories, she was ready to see if Danny could add any more input with his experience.

She casually walked to his room and knocked on the door. She was unaware of the time but luckily for her Danny had just returned from his nightly patrol.

Danny slowly opened his door and upon seeing Jazz opened the door a little wider. "What are you still doing up?"

Jazz cocked her brow in confusion than looked to her pink wrist watch, "Oh gosh is it really that late already?" she lowered her voice, "I'm sorry should I come back in the morning?"

Danny as about to say yes when he dropped his shoulders, "Ah whatever, just come in. It'll bug you all night if you don't tell me now."

She felt a bit guilty but knew it was true. "You sure?" knowing he needed his sleep.

"Yeah it's cool. I'm not even tired anyway." He opened the door a little more and moved aside so she could enter.

She filled him in on what she had been doing and posed her questions about some of the conflicting theories and speculations.

He did the best he could with answer her questions but most of them were involved theoretical science and he had no idea what she was saying let alone how to answer them.

After a few more hours an idea struck Jazz. What if she could find a way to get the ghosts to stay away? It was obviously wearing her little brother out, he needed a break, and those pesky ghosts really needed to learn to stay away.

She brought her idea into the conversation, "hey Danny, wouldn't it be great if we could get the ghosts to stop coming back?"

She didn't notice how quickly he got quite. "I mean for the really dangerous ones or the really pesky ones, just figure out how to get them to," she paused trying to think of the right phrase, what was it called when you got a ghost to go away forever? Oh right, "What if we could get them to, you know, move on!"

She was caught up in her own ideas to notice how still Danny got. How wide his eyes had gotten.

"I've read in a few articles that if you can figure out how the ghost died," she let a small smile of knowing cross her lips, "or what's keeping them here, so some say, you can send them off!" She beamed, she couldn't believe she hadn't thought of that earlier! That would say them so much trouble! No more repeated uses of the thermos! It was such a great plan. Maybe she could even use her therapeutic skills to help with that too!

Much to her surprise Danny didn't seem to like the idea at all, "Ghosts aren't here because they want to leave Jazz, they're here because they want to stay." He warned.

"But Danny, aren't we suppose to be helping them get to the 'great beyond'?" Jazz asked wondering why he looked that way... why did he have that look on his face. She couldn't quite place it, but knew it shouldn't be there.

Then Danny got a bit defensive, and by a bit it was more of a lot, "Jazz I fight the ghosts to protect the people! I'm not a monster that's going to destroy his enemies!" he nearly shouted.

"I'm not saying that you are. Danny you can't keep fighting them forever!" She was getting close to yelling herself but took a calming breath before she continued, "Look, you're my little brother and I want to keep you safe. I know I can't always do that but if this would help why won't you at least try it?"

"Because what if you're wrong?! What if we try it on, oh I don't know, The Box Ghost and bam! He's gone forever and then what? What if that kills him!" Danny was on his feet and pacing the room agitation.

She tried her best to use reason with him, "Danny you can't kill a ghost. They're already dead. I'm sure he'd go to a better place-"

But Danny wasn't through, "And what if he doesn't go to a better place Jazz? What if you send him to Hell? What if the Ghost Zone is The End! What if by getting rid of him I get even more enemies! More powerful enemies who want to do something horrible to me in revenge?" there was a slight crack in his voice when he got near the end.

It finally hit Jazz what that look on her baby brother's face was. It was fear. He was terrified. "D-Danny, I- I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"No I'm sure you didn't. Look if you want to make more notes and stuff on the ghosts, fine. If you want to tell me how I can kick their butts faster with some weakness I haven't figured out, that'd be great. But don't ever, I mean _ever_, tell me how to get rid of them for good. If you find out how, destroy the information! I don't want to know and I don't want anyone else to know either!"

She knew at this point there was nothing else she could say to him. He was too worked up now, best just end this now. "I'm sorry Danny. You're right. It's late, we should get some sleep." And with that she got up and left the room.

As she was getting ready for bed she started to rerun the conversation in her head. They way he looked at her while she was saying those things, the desperate look in his eyes, all those signs of fear. Maybe it wasn't just fear of the things he said, maybe there was something else?

Maybe he was afraid someone would do it to him. Was he afraid of what it would do to him. Or what it would mean if it worked. Would that make him more ghost? Would he even survive that? Or would it just split him in two?

Or maybe he was thinking of himself as more of a ghost than a human. He used to think of himself as a human with ghost powers, but what if he thinks of himself now as more of a living ghost?

She really didn't mean to open that can of worms. Maybe she should stop trying to help with this whole ghost thing. It clearly wasn't working for anyone.


	12. Song Of Secrets (Fave Ghost)

Ember sighed as she loosened her grip on the guitar. Why was she writing this song again? It had nothing to do with her.

Usually this would be the time she would scrap the song, if it wouldn't get people to scream out her name, why bother? But this song just coming back, it kept demanding to be written. She finally had given up on resisting, and let her mysterious muse guide her pen across the page.

She had been strumming mindlessly, humming the words, when her boyfriend came in.

"Hello Pet, how has your day been?" the hunter purred as he placed his firm hands on her shoulders.

She smiled at the nickname and stopped playing, "Pretty good. I've had this new song stuck in my head all day and I just got the chorus and a few verses down. You?" she turned her head so the spark in her eyes reached his.

Skulker's robotic face smirked, "Good to hear. I had an excellent hunt today!" he said as the ghostly electronic light in his eyes grew brighter at the thought of it.

"Oh really? Did you finally catch the Dipstick?" she asked as she spun to face him kneeling on the cushion in anticipation.

"Err- well no." the robot hesitated, "But I did get the leviathan I had been tracking for the last month and a half now." He offered a half-hearted smile now feeling a little less impressed. Did she have to bring up the Welp?

Ember chuckled, "Well that's good too!" she leaned up more and kissed his cheek, "You going to come out of there so I can kiss you proper? You know I hate kissing that dirty armor."

Unseen eyes rolled in their ghostly sockets, must she insist on calling his high tech battle suit 'dirty armor'? Then again her persistence is one of the reasons he liked her. "If you insist, my dove." He replied with a bow and opened the hatch in the face.

She smiled and her hair crackled, "See that wasn't so bad now was it?" then she reached inside to retrieve him and gave him a quick kiss.

He flushed an undetectible shade of green in his small ectoplasmic form. "s-so about that song of yours?" he brought up changing the subject before she could tell him how cute she thought he was... again. "Is there enough of it for me to hear?"

She beamed, ponytail flickering high above her in excitement to express her obsession. "I guess I can play a little demo for you baby."

He knew that would work, and smiled as she sat him down on the arm of the coach as she sat on the coffee table before him as if it were a stage.

She played a soft melody, slow at first but then frowned. "no, that's not right." She adjusted a knob on her guitar's body and strummed a cord to test it. It appeared to be right now and she cleared her throat to begin again.

As she played Skulker realized that this was what she called 'an acoustic jam'. She didn't do them often but when she was introducing him to the term she played her hit Remember in that format. It seemed to him a just be a slower version but she said that it could be more emotional.

Then she began to sing,

"_Boy why do you always have to run away?  
Why you gotta make me so confused  
So lost when you leave me behind  
Boy why do you always have to run away?_

_I've been sitting here wondering where you go at night  
I've been waiting here alone  
I've been holdin' in my tears, _

_But I just can't hold them anymore!_

_Boy why do you always have to run away?  
Why you gotta make me so confused  
So lost when you leave me behind  
Boy why do you always have to run away?_

_I see you come back with those cuts and bruises  
I hear you in the bathroom rinsing out the wounds  
I sensed you've used up the first aid kit again  
I can't get the scent of your blood out of my nose_

_Boy why do you always have to run away?  
Why you gotta make me so confused  
So lost when you leave me behind  
Boy why do you always have to run away?"_

She stopped playing abruptly and looked up at him, "It's not done yet, but that's what I got so far. You like it?" She asked her emerald eyes sparkling.

He was a bit taken aback at how powerful the song was, it was so raw and untamed, and he liked it. "Yes. I think you should keep playing it like that," he paused having forgot the term again but quickly remembered, "Acoustically I mean. It's very powerful that way. Like a tiger about to pounce. Or well, a gorilla attacking!"

She quickly yet carefully set her guitar aside and pulled him into a tight hug, "You really mean it, babe?" She kissed him quickly on lips, "You know that just means the world to me!"

"I know, my cerulean phoenix. And yes, I meant every word. I can't wait to hear the final version." He spoke sweetly.

"Well that song is going to have to wait until after I thank you properly." She said with a wickedly seductive glint in her eye.

Skulker then made a quick mental note to complement her music more often before she carried him and his suit behind closed doors.


	13. Don't Tell Him, It's A Surprise (Maddie)

Two years after their marriage, the Fenton's, with their first child on the way, pulled out all the stops. Maddie signed them up for a new parent class at the local community center, she put herself on a strict diet of foods that were supposedly good for babies, she played Mozart via headphones on her ever swelling tummy, everything that people said to do. Well after she researched it thoroughly of course, she wasn't just going to believe any old wives tale.

The day their daughter was born Maddie was happier than she had ever been in her whole life, all the hard work was worth it. She and Jack had decided to name their new daughter Jasmine. When Jack finally got to hold his daughter Maddie could tell that he was going to spoil his little princess rotten. She better hurry up and set some ground rules.

* * *

After Jasmine's second birthday they had decided to go visit Maddie's sister & husband in Arkansas, but a few days before the trip Maddie noticed she wasn't feeling well. She didn't want to cancel the trip so she called her sister and told her that just Jack and Jasmine would be coming. Her sister was a bit disappointed but agreed to the plan.

Once her husband and baby daughter were out of the house she went to relaxing on the couch. Which last about a whole ten seconds. Maddie didn't know why but she just couldn't sit still, so she decided to go use her pent up energy to work in the lab. She didn't have her jumpsuit on but she wasn't planning on doing too much dirty work, to compromise with herself she just put on her old lab coat.

She decided to do work on a project they had started in college, the ghost portal. It was a great idea and Maddie had always been excited about it, but with what had happened to their old friend Vlad she couldn't bring herself to work on it. Although now she didn't want his sacrifice to go to waste, and from what she heard he was becoming a very successful business man. She assumed no hard feelings.

Maddie had been toiling away for hours going over Jack's old calculations and the specs of the prototype portal when she started to fell ill again. And then she felt an odd pressure, one that seemed vaguely familiar. She paused her work and took a seat trying to figure out what that feeling was. It suddenly hit her what the feeling was but that couldn't be right? How could she be-?

Maddie wasted no time in driving herself to the hospital. She told the receptionist what she was feeling and what she thought it might be and she got a doctor straight away. Maddie was quite glad for such prompt care.

* * *

After several hours, Maddie was presented with a baby boy. She was happy to see his cute little face, but was still feeling some lingering embarrassment over not noticing her own pregnancy. Along with the fact that after so much preparation with her first child the way she was essentially winging it now wasn't what she was used to.

She ended up naming her son Daniel, it was a name she had always liked, and she didn't exactly have her husband here to help pick one either.

That also made things a bit awkward for her, even though they weren't actually saying anything to her, Maddie knew the nurse were looking down on her for being so unaware and without her husband! She did her best to ignore them when the doctor came in looking like he was about to share some bad news.

"Mrs. Fenton?" he clarified before he began.

She nodded and unconsciously held her baby a little closer. Sometimes she didn't like being right.

He gave a quick nod and continued, "We'd like to keep you and your baby overnight for observation. Is that ok?" he added but she had a feeling he wasn't really asking her permission.

"Well, I guess, but may I ask why?" she asked not being left in the dark.

"It's just your son looks a little weaker than we like to see in newborns. We just want to be 100% sure that he's as healthy as can be. Now if that will be all I have other patients to attend too." He concluded and promptly left the room once she nodded.

Unwell? Maddie looked her son over again, he had a thin layer of jet black hair sticking out of his scalp and a brilliant pair of baby blue eyes. So what was wrong? She looked him over again, he did seem pretty pale, and now that she thought about it, he was a lot smaller than Jasmine had been.

* * *

After a few more tests and overnight observation, the doctors agreed to let the stir crazed mother take a walk around the hospital.

And by 'walk' they meant having a young intern wheel her and her baby around in a wheel chair. She wanted to protest that she was fine but the intern looked so nervous that she didn't want him to get in trouble. Plus if she really needed to get away she was sure tricking this kid wouldn't be that hard, but in the mean time she could in enjoy his company, he was pretty cute after all. Being married didn't mean she couldn't look did it?

They had been wandering the halls aimlessly for several minutes when Maddie asked if they could go to another floor. Her dutiful chair pusher thought on that for a second or two then nodded, "I was getting kind of bored of this floor too." He smiled as he pushed them towards the elevator.

They went down to the ground level smiling and laughing at a shared joke when the doors opened to the chaos. Doctors and nurses were running around shouting orders to each other and clearing a path. From the front doors burst a gurney being rushed into the building straight from the ambulance truck. The group of rushing doctors and EMT's flew past the now startled group, unaware of their presence completely focused on keeping this patient alive.

The heat monitor started screaming a single beat as one of the nurses shouted "We're losing him!"

Maddie quickly turned to her guide, "Get us out of here! NOW!" She held baby Daniel close her eyes pleading to just get out of this mess. She didn't want her baby to be exposed to this, she barely wanted to be witnessing this. Maddie's shouts brought the intern to his sense and he quickly wheeled them into the elevator his hand slamming the first button it found leaning his back against the wall as the doors slide closed.

It took a few calming breathes before Maddie realized that they were descending. "Why did you send us down?" Maddie asked as she tried to calm her startled son.

"What? Oh I uhh..." the boy rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "I guess I wasn't really looking at which button it was. Sorry I'll just bring us back to your floor and get you back to your room?" he finished with a question waiting for her approval with a nervous smile.

She gave him a soft smile and agreed. She would most likely have to feed Daniel soon or possibly change him? She just hoped after all the excitement she would be able to get him to sleep.

Maddie missed the reassured smile she had received from the boy. She was too busy at the time fusing over her newborn son to see how he was seeming to enjoy the simple sight of a mother and child.

"What's down here anyway?" the dark haired intern asked curiosity building in his pale blue eyes.

"Don't you work here?" Maddie chided with a smirk turning to face him the best she could.

He blushed, "I-I just started today!" he stammered out defensively clearing not expecting the returned question.

She smiled and laughed lightly, "oh I was only teasing," he visibly relaxed and she continued returning her gaze to her child, "It's the morgue. Where the dead go before they are buried. Autopsies are generally done here too unless the family members refuse."

The boy nodded and before they knew it the elevator had landed in the basement. The doors opened revealing the stark cold area before them.

Maddie heard the boy gasp just as the doors closed and turned to face him again, "What's wrong?" she asked slightly concerned and still on edge from the earlier ordeal.

He seemed a bit distracted for a moment, just starring at the doors when he finally muttered, "j-just a cold chill, nothing to worry about." He smiled but it didn't quite reach his eyes. She could tell he was lying but couldn't for the life of her figure out what it could be. Although maybe it was just the cold, she had felt a chill as well. Must of just been the cold air of the morgue making a small breeze when the doors closed.

She was still curious about the shady behavior and was to ask him about it when small laughter filled the small enclosure. Maddie quickly turned and saw her baby smiling ear to ear giggling and flailing his little arms awkwardly. She had completely forgotten about the boy behind her and his odd ways. Her little boys laughter was the best thing that had happened to her all day. She didn't know what had caused it, but she didn't mind. Her son looked happy and healthy which was all that mattered.

Maddie didn't notice when the boy behind had confused but pleasantly surprised look on his face when the baby had started laughing. She hadn't even thought that her son, and the intern, saw something there in elevator with them that she couldn't. For if she had seen what they saw she might not have been so happy. For what entered the elevator was one of the creatures she claimed to hunt.


End file.
